Repossessions 'could hit 45,000' next year

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The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said as many as 45,000 homes could be taken back by lenders in 2008 - the highest figure since the late-1990s.

The warning came as the number of homes being sold at auction reached its highest level for two years.

A total of 5,120 houses went under the hammer between April and June, a rise of 22 per cent on the previous three months.

The institution said the increase in auctioned homes was down to repossessions, which jumped 30 per cent year-on-year in the first half of the year.

Homeowners are struggling to meet mortgage repayments because of recent interest rate hikes, it warned, and repossessions could hit 45,000 next year.

This compares with 19,600 last year and 76,000 at the height of the last recession in 1991.

Oliver Gilmartin, an economist at the RICS, said: "With the full impact of interest rate rises in 2007 yet to filter through into higher mortgage costs, we continue to expect a rise in the number of homes going under the hammer into 2008.

"The auction house will continue to be a quick means to foreclose mortgages where properties have been repossessed."

The figures showed that the North-West had the highest concentration of homes sold at auction, with 826 homes going under the hammer in the second quarter of the year.

There were also high levels of auction activity in the South-East, London and the West Midlands.

But fewer than 100 homes were sold at auction in Scotland, and levels also remained low in East Anglia.

A second survey published yesterday found that more than half of Britons would consider taking out an Individual Voluntary Agreement if they were heavily in debt.

More than one in ten said that they thought IVAs - an alternative to bankruptcy where lenders agree to freeze interest payments on debts in return for a set amount being repaid each month - were "perfectly acceptable".

However, Moneysupermarket.com, which carried out the survey, warned that IVAs were "not something that should be entered into lightly".